‘No real hope’ of avoiding biggest rail strike in 30 years, says Network Rail
Network Rail said there was “no real hope” of avoiding the biggest railway strike in 30 years next week, as it told passengers to plan ahead and only travel if necessary.
The full timetable will be published on Friday but operators including Southern, Northern, TransPennine and Transport for Wales have already told passengers not to attempt to travel on strike days.
Network Rail confirmed that large parts of the country will have no passenger services on the strike days, including locations such as Penzance in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, all of Wales west or north of Cardiff, and no passenger trains running north from Glasgow or Edinburgh.
With backup staff for signalling, about 20% of trains will run on mainlines and urban areas on the strike days – 21, 23 and 25 June – while services will start later in the morning, with about 60% of the schedule on the subsequent days.
Network Rail’s chief executive, Andrew Haines, described the strike by 40,000 RMT workers as a “high-stakes gamble” by unions, and said it would cost the industry £150m and make a pay increase harder.
Haines said proposals to modernise to increase safety and productivity were meeting “intransigence … even when terms and conditions are patently anachronistic”.
He said talks would continue but added: “We haven’t yet seen movement that gives us real hope.”
The RMT called for direct talks with the government, saying it was “clear that the Treasury is calling the shots”.
Mick Lynch, the RMT’s general secretary, wrote to the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, to seek an urgent meeting, saying: “In effect, in recent weeks the union has been negotiating with the government but the government have not been in the room.’’
The last meeting between unions and the
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